Summer Summary

Besides time in the pool, camps, vacation bible school, friends, the water park, playing Wii, camping and vacation, here's the kids summer's summary:

Alex: Car spotting for Daddy's new company car, the new Ford Taurus, and the convertible Jeep we rented on vacation. Complaints about feeling car sick are frequent. No 'evidence' of the sickness yet though. Alex has taken on the role of playing the family clown, being silly and trying to make us laugh. Playing Scott's "Who Am I?" game where he successfully copies other's mannerisms is his favorite. He prefers to do things on his own time, and tends to have selective deafness with when it comes to being obedient.

Danica: Plays hide & go seek, but hides in plain view behind the same chair. "Count to 20" is our cue to pretend to not see her. She has several imaginary friends, but talks the most about Kathy Mairin, who live in Oklahoma and spends a lot of time injured in the hospital. Just to keep up, Alex made up his friend, Larpus, and Linc will occasionally talk about Lincoln Jr. Such a fashionista, Dani dumped out all of her stored winter clothes and shoes on her floor because she needed to know what she will wear when the weather turns colder. When I told her the stars are out during the day we just can't see them because the sun is so bright she said, "maybe we could get some really, really, really dark sunglasses, then we could see them." Staying dry in undies at night lasted about 2 weeks, but she's been back in Pull Ups ever since. We are working again on staying dry throughout the day because of her laziness and waiting until the last possible moment. I made a pretend call last week to the director of her preschool and had a 'conversation' about how she's have to go to the 2 year old classroom with the 'babies' if she didn't keep her panties dry. Thinking she'd be scared straight, when I got off the phone she giggled, saying, "Mom, I know you're just kidding, you didn't really call her." Shucks. Now it's back to a Starburst for peeing. She resists cleaning up her toys and crafts, so her markers (gasp!) frequent time out several times a week. 'Holy pollies' is what she calls rollie pollies (pill bugs).

Lincoln: Enjoys reading The Guinness Book of World Records. Quotes: "Mom, do we have any tape remover?"when it was stuck to paper. "I think a wasp just stung the window." While playing outside he commented that he didn't understand why people put air conditioners in the backyard when it was still so hot out there. Linc comes up with grand ideas for new inventions(usually electronic related), but gets so frustrated when he can't construct them out of paper and tape. He is a boy who wants instant gratification, whatever his heart desires, he must have it now. He is policeman of the family, always pointing out who's not following the rules. The older he gets, the more striking the personality similarities are between he & his dad!

All 3 Kids: Listening to Radio Disney. They know all the hot teeny-bopper singers; Mylie Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Jonas Brothers, and Justin Beiber; it's pretty funny to hear a three year old walking around singing"I just need somebody to love." Lincoln has a knack for picking up the correct lyrics, while I just mumble my made up words, his actual verses make much more sense. An obsession with the dog. They race in from the car to greet her first, argue over petting her and randomly have to know her whereabouts in the house. Not so sure Bay loves the attention. The boys dreaded 30 minutes of reading time each day, thanks to mom's fear that their brains will turn to mush over summer. Building complex multi-room forts with every blanket in the house, then refusing to clean them up. Checking out oodles of library books then reading only a few. Overdue library book notices.

Other: July's heat surprised us with a $515 electricity bill! That day the thermostats were raised to 80 degrees! McKinney rated as the #5 best place to live in America, by Money Magazine. Ft. Collins rated #6!